It is good for a man not to TOUCH a woman (1 Cor. 7:1)
Ty
tysbgreek at hotmail.com
Fri Jun 21 02:16:12 EDT 2002
Iver Larsen wrote:
> No, I don't think so. Paul uses 6 PERI DE + genitive of topic (and one
PERI
> + genitive of topic + OUN) introductions in 1 Cor and they all refer to
some
> questions the Corinthians had written to him about, but none of these 7
> contain a direct quotation. I cannot see anything in the Greek text or the
> context that would suggest a quotation.
> If the text had been PERI DE hOU EGRAYATA possibly followed by hOTI, I
might
> grant the possibility of a quote. But with PERI DE hWN it seems to me that
> Paul is introducing what they asked in an indirect way: Concerning the
> things you wrote about: It is good...
This is a good observation but I wonder if the Greek mode of thought
supports the idea of being able to identify the difference between a direct
quote, a summery, or a direct or an indirect reference, even by the same
writer in similar contexts. M. M. Bakhtin puts it like this, "One of the
most interesting stylistic problems during the Hellenistic period was the
problem of quotation. The forms of direct, half-hidden and completely hidden
quoting were endlessly varied, as were the forms for framing quotations by a
context, forms of intonational quotation marks, varying degrees of
alienation or assimilation of another's quoted word. And here the problem
frequently arises: is the author quoting with reverence or on the contrary,
with irony, with a smirk? Double entendre as regards the other's word was
often deliberate." (pp.84-85, _The_Dialogic_Imagination_, Austin: University
of Texas Press, 1981, trans. Caryl Emerson & Michael Holquist, ed. M.
Holquist). That is not to say that Bakhtin was speaking of this particular
situation or that he is always correct but his statements have had a
tendency to stand the test of time, even when they have disagreed with
prevailing scholarship, and in this case I do not see a great deal of
opposition.
Welcoming comments and disagreements,
Ty Frost
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